On Wednesday & Thursday of last week we had some first signs of warmth!! The high on Thursday was 61!!! Heyyyy!!!!

Heatwave! :)

On Wednesday we played the afternoon away at the park & even met some new friends, who happened to live in our neighboring building... so, of course this 5 1/2 year old girl (and her 2-year old sister) next door is the big highlight of all Aubree's conversations!

Thursday morning, Baylee basked in the morning sunlight (through the window) on her activity mat & then fell asleep in her swing, so I took the kids outside to color with chalk. The sun felt so good & it was, I think the first time all year that we didn't need our jackets...

 This chalk thing has been a long time coming. All year I have refused their requests to take them outside to color. Thursday was the perfect storm though, it was warm, sunny & we were due for rain showers that night & all day Friday. I hate "junking up" the walkways, for our fellow neighbors... so the rain would clean up their mess!

And, all was well & all was fun. Aubree drew about 30 "Sponge Bob Squarepants" (which kept getting bigger with each one) and Preston colored them all in & Aubree didn't freak out about it...

AND THEN....

The "dead mouse" was found... Back down, hands up - dead as a doornail! :(

(poor little thing!)

And, Preston was sooooo sad! He wanted to just touch it & just hold it and just hug it. :(

And, he kept getting closer and closer, and closer to it!

He wanted to know "WHY?" he died. And "WHY?" he couldn't feel it.

"why?", "why?", "why?", "why?", "why"

And, this continued for a good 1/2 hour....

 And his little, tiny heart hurt for the mouse...

(he's soooooo cute! I can't handle it!!)

He would walk away & then he would come back...

And, then he would walk away (at the requests of Aubree), but always return to the mouse's side.

 And, still.... A day later, the question still remains:

"Mommy, why did the mouse 'died'?"

And, I can only guess that it was the neighbor-guy's cat - but... I don't know & I'm sure tomorrow morning Preston will wake up & continue to ask me about about the mouse & how he died and where that cat is NOW!

Rest In Peace little mouse... :(

??/??/???? - 02/23/2012